The Summit of Savagery: The Life and Death Experiences of K2's Female Pioneers

Perhaps the mountains don't care about their gender,
but human society does.

｜Curated, selected, and guided by Chan Wai-Hung ── Faces Publishing meters Mountain Literature Series｜

TaiTai LIVE WILD A-Tai & Dai-Dai
Kit, the Mountain Girl │ Writer
Wang Jialan │ Founder of Hiking Biji
Jiang Xiuzhen │ Director of Taiwan Formosa Mountain Area Education Promotion Association
Lu Zhonghan │ Global Citizen and Explorer
Yi Siting │ American-based Climbing Explorer
Zhang Yuanzhi │ Taiwanese New-Generation Mountaineer
Chan Chiao-Yu Tri Fish │ Author of "Climbing the Endless Mountain"
Liu Chong-Feng │ Writer / Nature Guide ──Recommended

They are daughters, wives, poets, mothers, and also mountaineers heading towards the mysterious but brutal summit of K2. While stories of adventure in the mountains are inspiring, they are often tinged with more bitterness. Gender advantage may provide women with extra care on the mountain, but such attention can easily turn into malicious attacks—in fact, we are all just humans who foolishly hope to gain the favor of the mountain gods. Jordan delicately portrays five women with distinct personalities, their struggles before fame and the shadows after glory, striving to carve out a place in the masculine world of high-altitude climbing. All their choices point to this mountain rising from the glaciers, for which they would not hesitate to give their lives. ──Kit, the Mountain Girl │ Writer

If I could travel through time, how I wish I could return to Wanda's era, become her partner, and climb the world's highest peaks. This book describes the process of five women climbing K2. Along the way, to conquer the peaks, they constantly pushed themselves toward death. The closer they got to the summit, the more fearless they became of death. The spirit and passion of surpassing the peak cannot be truly appreciated without experiencing it firsthand. Xiuzhen was fortunate enough to have walked a similar path in the past. Women's courage, resilience, and vitality are distinctly different from men's. Besides facing environmental challenges and difficulties, they also encounter discrimination arising from gender differences. Xiuzhen vows to form an all-female climbing team to challenge K2 in the future. ──Jiang Xiuzhen │ Director of Taiwan Formosa Mountain Area Education Promotion Association

Not just women, we are human. Although men and women possess different characteristics due to their physiology, they share similar dreams, ideals, and desires. Each of them is as complex and varied as a mountain. In the male-dominated world of exploring eight-thousander peaks, as mothers, wives, lovers, and daughters, they possess an unknown power of danger, as profound as a crevasse. Not just women, we are human; love, hate, greed, anger, and ignorance—before K2, how lamentable, how lovable. ──Liu Chong-Feng │ Writer / Nature Guide

Since a member of an American climbing team and three Sherpas died on K2 in 1939, this "savage mountain" full of rocks, ice, storms, and abysses has earned a notorious reputation that has remained unchanged for nearly a century. In the 1980s, in the predominantly male profession of mountaineering, five female pioneers broke gender barriers, successively reaching the summit of this 8,000-meter-high "death zone," which virtually isolates all living things.

These five mountaineers are: Wanda Rutkiewicz (1943–1992), reached K2 summit in 1986 Liliane Barrard (1948–1986), died during descent from K2 in 1986 Julie Tullis (1939–1986), died during descent from K2 in 1986 Chantal Mauduit (1964–1998), reached K2 summit in 1992 Alison Hargreaves (1962–1995), died during descent from K2 in 1995

In 1998, an article about the death of "the last woman to leave K2 alive" led the author to retrace the steps of these female mountaineers to K2. She became fascinated by this strange and unforgiving high-altitude environment and wondered why these women left their families and children to choose a life on the edge of death. Beyond their roles as daughters, wives, and mothers, how did they overcome societal perceptions and physical limitations, dealing with menstruation on the mountain while also contending with male climbing team members, porters, guides, and officials?

This book documents the ongoing struggle of these five female mountaineers against patriarchy, while also demonstrating to future generations their passionate yearning for climbing and high mountains, and their determination to sacrifice their lives without regret.